@AriFleischer I say this analytically, not as hominem: this take is idiotic and/or obtuse
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Matt Salvetti
5.6K posts
Matt Salvetti
@salvetti_matt
Any views expressed are my own; RTs are not necessarily endorsements
Katılım Mayıs 2022
200 Takip Edilen90 Takipçiler
This is another example showing how Barack Obama is one of the most divisive figures in American politics today. So many of our divisions were caused by the smug, demeaning and narrow-minded way he treats his opponents.
Here, he pretends to not know the truth about the would-be assassin, although the facts of his left wing views were public hours before Obama’s tweet. It’s classic Obama - pretend to be conciliatory while he is the one who creates the divide.
You would hope that Obama would condemn the left after the left tries to kill a President.
But that’s too much to ask.
Once again, Obama proves himself to be a classless divider of our country.
Barack Obama@BarackObama
Although we don’t yet have the details about the motives behind last night's shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, it’s incumbent upon all us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy. It’s also a sobering reminder of the courage and sacrifice that U.S. Secret Service Agents show every day. I’m grateful to them – and thankful that the agent who was shot is going to be okay.
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@dmarusic The same cognitive bias that Trotskyists promoted - “true socialism was never tried.” Israel cannot cognitively abide the survival of the Islamic Republic, so it will not even try to digest one of the unpalatable lessons of this war: the fundamental resilience of the regime
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This is the same cognitive bias that Trotskyists promoted - “true socialism was never tried.” Israel cannot cognitively abide the survival of the Islamic Republic, so it will not be chastened after getting mugged by reality in this war.
Open Source Intel@Osint613
BIG: Israel’s plan to take down the Iranian regime was never executed. Mossad was reportedly prepared to help ignite the takedown, but President Trump halted the move just hours before it was set to begin. -YNET
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Matt Salvetti retweetledi
As reflected in many of my posts over the past few months, I have been reading (and re-reading) a lot of social theory.
What strikes me is that most critics of “capitalism” (whatever “capitalism” might mean, and regardless of the value of those critiques) are really critics of modernity, understood as the organization of society around technology, formal institutions, and rational criteria.
I teach the economic history of the Soviet Union and socialist China, and all the pathologies (pollution, reliance on fossil fuels, inequality, depersonalization, consumerism, alienation, you name it) that you can find in a poor neighborhood of 2026 Philadelphia appeared in the same way, or even more, in a factory in Leningrad in 1970 or on a collective farm in Jiangsu in 1978.
Critics seem to lack a vocabulary (or, if you prefer, a cognitive framework) for distinguishing “capitalism” from modernity. For example, people everywhere tend to link personal relationships to displays of consumption. There are likely deep evolutionary reasons for this. De Beers did not invent spending a lot of money on a useless engagement ring: it rode a pre-existing disposition into a particular form of consumption. Couples in Leipzig in 1982 were as interested in conspicuous consumption as those in Chicago in 2026. Talking about “Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism” misses the point completely.
Of course, you can try, as some of the more perceptive Trotskyists did, to argue that the Soviet Union or China were not truly socialist countries, but this is just a lazy application of the “no true Scotsman” fallacy, and, consequently, their complaints failed to gain much traction outside some departments of cultural studies.
But this is not just a matter of poor analytic skills, as bad as those are. More importantly, it means that 99% of the policy proposals activists put on the table to correct the problems of “capitalism” are doomed to fail because they do not understand where the root cause of the phenomena they complain about lies.
I see this at the university. Do you think the corporation you deal with is self-serving and incompetent? Wait until you need to deal with the Graduate School at a private Ivy League university. The incentive problems (asymmetric information, career concerns, lack of timely feedback, pressure toward conformity) that cause dysfunction in the former are even more pronounced in the latter because of the absence of a profit motive, the sharpest disciplinary mechanism.
At a very fundamental level, Marx got modernity wrong; Weber got it right. Time to spend much less time with Marx and much, much more time with Weber.
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Matt Salvetti retweetledi
BLUF (TL;DR) | Budanov, speaking at the Kyiv Security Forum on 23 April, says Ukraine is near-ready to deploy AI-integrated autonomous drone systems capable of independent target identification and operation without real-time human input. He assessed that both sides have hit the ceiling on scaling conventional drone numbers and control technology and that the next phase is full autonomy.
"Such developments already exist on our side, and I am convinced they will very soon become a surprise for the enemy."
Drone swarms, autonomous hunter-drones... What the new features will entail is still unknown.
#OSINT #Ukraine
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The next front in transatlantic tensions?theguardian.com/world/2026/apr…
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Matt Salvetti retweetledi
Promised, delivered, implemented.
The EU’s strategy to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine rests on two pillars: strengthening Ukraine; increasing pressure on Russia. Today we moved forward on both:
▪️ Unlocking the €90 billion loan to Ukraine, securing financial and military support for 2026–2027.
▪️ Adopting the 20th package of sanctions against Russia, reducing its ability to wage war.
Europe stands firm, united and unwavering in its support to Ukraine.
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Matt Salvetti retweetledi
Ukraine has asked Turkey to help arrange a summit meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a renewed effort to end the war, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in Kyiv.
“We have addressed the Turks directly. But if another capital — other than Moscow and Belarus — organizes such a meeting, we will attend,” Sybiha told reporters at a briefing Tuesday. “We are also advocating for a meeting now to inject new momentum into the Zelenskiy–Putin diplomatic track.”
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Matt Salvetti retweetledi
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗪𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱
BLUF (TL;DR) | The U.S. military deployed Ukrainian drone defense technology to Prince Sultan Air Base, weeks after Trump publicly said America didn't need Ukraine's help.
On March 13, President Trump told Fox News Radio: "We don't need their help in drone defense. We know more about drones than anybody. We have the best drones in the world, actually."
Reuters, citing five sources, now reports that Ukrainian military officials have been sent to Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia to train American forces on Sky Map, a Ukrainian system widely used to detect and track incoming Shahed drones and coordinate interceptor responses.
The deployment came after Iran's strike campaign against the base left several mission-critical aircraft destroyed and personnel dead.
The March 27 attack alone destroyed one E-3G Sentry AWACS and damaged multiple KC-135 and KC-46 tankers. At least 29 U.S. personnel were wounded across two weeks of strikes.
Ukrainian intelligence tracked Russian satellite imaging of Prince Sultan on March 20, 23, and 25, three passes that, by Ukraine's pattern-recognition doctrine, signaled an imminent strike within 24 to 48 hours. The warning reached U.S. counterparts. The attack came on March 27.
Two U.S. officials subsequently told Axios that Trump's rejection of Ukraine's original drone-defense proposal, made seven months earlier, was now considered one of the administration's biggest tactical mistakes since operations against Iran began.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, has been fielding the Merops interceptor, made by U.S. defense firm Perennial Autonomy, a system first proven by Ukrainian forces against Russian Shaheds in June 2024. Army Secretary Driscoll told Congress on April 16 that 13,000 units had been procured within eight days of the conflict starting.
#OSINT #Analysis
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Matt Salvetti retweetledi
No Panic in Kremlin. We don't use artificial intelligence. We rely on natural stupidity.
Maria Drutska 🇺🇦@maria_drutska
Okay, be honest – how many of you panicked today when AI stopped working and you realised you might have to switch from artificial intelligence to your own?
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Matt Salvetti retweetledi
Unbelievable -- after more than four years of war, "Russia produces roughly 1,100 cruise missiles a year, compared with about 300 in the EU, while Moscow manufactures around 900 ballistic missiles annually against effectively none in the bloc." newsletter.euractiv.com/mail/a763f9b2-…
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Matt Salvetti retweetledi
Unbelievable indeed - but only if one still mistakes European rhetoric for European policy.
Recently on @GroundZeroPL, in a conversation with Ignacy Morawski @iggnacy , an outstanding economic analyst, I argued that despite the grand declarations of European leaders: @alexstubb , @bundeskanzler , @donaldtusk, @EmmanuelMacron, that “the old world no longer exists,” that a new era has begun, one in which force matters more than law, there is still no corresponding change in the macro-scale political decisions that shape European societies.
Europe is effectively betting against history. Its elites behave as though this rupture is temporary, as though the storm will soon pass, and therefore there is no need to alter the basic conditions of European life. Why make sacrifices, why reorganize society, why rebuild strategic industries, why train citizens for harder times, if one can simply borrow money now and repay it in the better days that are supposedly just around the corner?
That is why - for example- in Poland Donald Tusk’s government has not restored military conscription yet, which it suspended just before Russia’s annexation of Crimea. That is why, across Europe, production of the weapons needed for a long war remains homeopathic. And that is why, despite four years of Russian aggression against Ukraine, the continent still produces strategic insufficiency on an industrial scale.
Europe’s political classes prefer to trade in optimism rather than seriously prepare their societies for the age whose arrival they themselves so theatrically proclaim.
And so we arrive at the absurdity captured in those missile numbers: Europe speaks as if it has entered a harsher world, but continues to live as if history were on a temporary leave of absence.
Ulrich Speck@ulrichspeck
Unbelievable -- after more than four years of war, "Russia produces roughly 1,100 cruise missiles a year, compared with about 300 in the EU, while Moscow manufactures around 900 ballistic missiles annually against effectively none in the bloc." newsletter.euractiv.com/mail/a763f9b2-…
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@coucousabzi @FareedZakaria Vali Nasr is not the son of a mullah, but rather the son of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a renowned Iranian academic, philosopher, and scholar of Islamic studies who served as chancellor of Aryamehr University and advisor to the Shah.
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@FareedZakaria So sad a journalist like you has no other source of Vali Nasr- the mouthpiece of Islamic Republic and son of a mullah!
This piece of info is for those still following you...
Fareed is supporter of a terrorist regime.
#FreeIran
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Today, President Trump railed against Iran’s decision to close the Strait of Hormuz, calling it "A Total Violation of our Ceasefire Agreement." He also confirmed US negotiators will be in Pakistan tomorrow for a second round of talks. How are leaders in Tehran thinking about negotiations with Washington? Part 1 of my conversation with @SAISHopkins’ @vali_nasr:
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Matt Salvetti retweetledi
Radev's overtures to Russia will start on the energy front. He'll push for Lukoil Neftochim refinery in Burgas to start importing Russian crude again from Novorossiysk (Magyar gets Druzhba reopened, why not Bulgaria?). Also approach Gazprom for renewed gas supplies.
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Matt Salvetti retweetledi
To understand how the Serbian nation in 30 years transformed from a pro-Western into an anti-Western one, we must understand the political strategies used by those in power and those in the opposition. Those in power in the 1990s, who are again in power since 2012, blamed the great Western conspiracy against the Serbian nation for all the defeats.
There were two counter-narratives: the mainstream opposition one portrayed the Serbian nation as captured by the Milosevic regime; the NGO narrative castigated the Serbian nation incessantly. After Milosevic, the nation had unrealistic great expectations for quick success. Then came the disillusionment and return to the now updated Milosevic-Vucic discourse.
In all these years, only two opposition leaders came close to breaking the loop: Vuk Draskovic, with his counter-mythology of pro-Western nationalism, and Zoran Djindjic, with his optimistic and pragmatic pro-Western strategy. Milosevic tried to assassinate Draskovic twice and Milosevic's people assassinated Djindjic.
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Matt Salvetti retweetledi
Radev is no Orban or Fico, more like Babis. Bulgaria gets much larger (to GDP) EU structural fund and now SAFE flows. It would be suicide for Radev to screw around with the EU and risk these while Bulgarians generally are pro-EU.
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@ulrichspeck I think for some (not all) in Europe, this reflects a view of the diminishing returns and, of course, the negative collateral effects of Israel’s hypermilitarized posture in the region.
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What is completely overlooked in Europe is that Israel since the Hamas attacks in 2023 has been key to diminish the Iranian threat across the region, by turning from defensive to the offensive mode. This is the only path towards longer last peace -- end Iran's hegemonic project.
Nicholas Vinocur ✍️@NicholasVinocur
My story today: “The mood is shifting,” said a second senior EU official who is involved in organizing diplomatic conversations about Israel. “Look at the Merz comments and what’s been happening in Italy,” the official added, saying much would depend on the Lebanon peace process
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@MaxAbrahms @20committee Israel is not a European state. Review Article 10 of the Washington Treaty (and a map).
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@20committee That’s not a fair question given that Israel has wanted to be in NATO but was rebuffed. Israel would have supplied troops had Israel’s preferences been agreed upon.
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The ROK is an actual ally. Seoul gives as well as takes. South Korea committed over 300K troops to America's Vietnam War, where they suffered over 5K KIA.
Remind us how many troops the IDF has committed to any and all US wars since 1948.
David Bernstein@ProfDBernstein
How do people with a straight face say that Israel get "military aid" but South Korea doesn't, simply bc one is officially in the foreign aid budget, and one is buried in the military budget. The US has over 20K soldiers stationed in South Korea, there as a tripwire in case the North attacks. This costs *FAR* more than military aid to Israel, and also puts thousands of American soldiers directly in harm's way.
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@ForeignAffairs @mahbubani_k Persian civilization is indeed ancient. The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has many features alien to Persian civilization, is a mere 47 years old.
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“Persian civilization has demonstrated over thousands of years that it is one of the strongest civilizations, and to think that two weeks of bombing can destroy it, I think, is very shortsighted,” says @mahbubani_k.
foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/how-i…
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Matt Salvetti retweetledi
Ghalibafs speech is a must watch to understand the domestic messaging against misinformation, how the leadership sees their strengths and weaknesses but also the case for negotiations.
The Trump administration continues to misinterpret or disregard Tehrans political decision making and Irans insistence on a step by step laddered process which can only move up with verification. Brinksmanship will continue to pressure but it won’t create the swift conditions for deal making.
Hamidreza Azizi@HamidRezaAz
🧵Ghalibaf’s remarks tonight were clearly aimed at domestic audience, particularly the Islamic Republic’s core support base. This constituency consists largely of hardline, ideologically driven groups whose continued mobilization has been critical for maintaining internal stability during the war, but who are also deeply skeptical of diplomacy. 🔹Over the past few days, it has become increasingly evident that while reliance on this minority base can help the system navigate crises in the short term, it comes at the cost of reduced flexibility and a narrower room for maneuver. 🔹This same constituency had opposed the ceasefire and, following Iran’s conditional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, mounted a sustained pressure campaign against decision-makers, urging them to reverse course. This domestic pressure may have contributed to the subsequent move by Iranian authorities to reimpose restrictions on the Strait. 🔹Ghalibaf’s statements addressed several key points: 1. He emphasized that although Iran may have gained the upper hand on the battlefield, this does not mean that its adversaries have been fully defeated, thereby underscoring the continued need for diplomacy. 2. He sought to reframe the relationship between war and diplomacy, arguing that both are instruments for advancing national interests. By doing so, he aimed to deflect criticism from hardliners accusing him of adopting a softer, pro-diplomacy stance at the expense of national interests. 3. He further described negotiations as a complement to, rather than a contradiction of, military efforts, positioning diplomacy as part of a broader strategy to secure Iran’s objectives. 4. Finally, he stressed that all diplomatic engagement is conducted within the framework established by the Supreme Leader, reinforcing the message that negotiations do not deviate from core strategic principles. 🔹Together, these points were intended to reassure and placate a domestic audience wary of compromise. 🔸Ghalibaf also addressed the negotiation process. He noted that while some progress has been made on specific issues, the two sides remain far from reaching a final agreement. 🔸Importantly, he emphasized that Iran’s approach is based on step-by-step commitments and an incremental process. In other words, Tehran is not prepared to make upfront concessions that would allow the other side to delay or avoid fulfilling its own obligations later. 🔸His direct reference to JD Vance was also notable. Ghalibaf stated that Vance had told him in Islamabad that he was there in good faith to pursue a durable peace. Ghalibaf responded that Iran, too, is negotiating in good faith, but does not trust the United States.
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